Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Flowers in the dirt announced on Amazon

Planned for March 24: The Archive edition of Paul McCartney's "Flowers in the dirt".

Amazon has announced the Archive edition of Paul McCartney's 1989 album "Flowers in the dirt". A Deluxe edition, containing 3 CDs and 1 DVD and a Special edition of 2 CDs, as well as a double vinyl album are listed.
Originally planned for release in 2016, the album was delayed following McCartney having left his previous record label Hear Music/Concorde for Capitol Records.
At the time of the original release, "Flowers in the dirt" was considered a major return to form, and earned him some of his best reviews in years. The album made number 1 in the United Kingdom and Norway and produced several hit singles (the first being "My Brave Face"). It also marked a return to concert touring for McCartney. His last tour was the December tour of 1979 with Wings, now he embarked on a World tour as a solo artist. Starting in Drammen, Norway, the Paul McCartney World Tour opened on 26 September 1989 and featured concerts in North America, Europe, Japan and Brazil until the following July.

New vinyl edition has two LPs and mp3 downloads.

After the meagre sales that greeted the 1986 album "Press to Play", McCartney realised that he needed to work much harder on his follow-up. Thus, he not only teamed up with several different producers, but also spent the better part of 18 months perfecting "Flowers in the Dirt". A highlight of the sessions was McCartney's productive alliance with Elvis Costello, with whom he composed many new songs. In his 2015 autobiography, "Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink", Costello described the track "That Day Is Done" as, "the unhappy sequel to "Veronica"", which they had also co-written. McCartney greatly enjoyed the new partnership, even finding that Costello mirrored John Lennon in certain aspects of his personality. Costello would also appear on the album, even co-singing "You Want Her Too" with McCartney. Another celebrity guest included was his friend David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, who plays the guitar on "We Got Married". On "Put It There", McCartney used an old Buddy Holly trick, the knee-percussion, that McCartney recorded on the same day as the backing track. Elvis also persuaded Paul to bring back his trademark Höfner bass guitar, both for recording the album and on tour. The bass guitar had been retired since Paul's Beatle days, but he must have enjoyed playing it again, it still remains an icon in his stage presence.

Single: "My Brave Face" and the non-album track "Flying To My Home"

In May 1989, the Beatlesque "My Brave Face" was released as a single and promptly gave McCartney a US hit, reaching number 25, while reaching number 18 in the UK. In June, "Flowers in the Dirt" was released to high anticipation and immediately entered the UK charts at number 1, garnering very positive reviews from all around. In the US, the reaction was better than "Press to Play", with the album reaching number 21, staying on the charts for a year and going gold, though it still sold beneath expectations. The second single, "This One", also reached number 18 in the UK. The follow-ups "Figure of Eight"/"Où est le Soleil?" and "Put It There" would all be minor UK hits.

Special edition: 2CDs

The album cover artwork was photographed by Linda McCartney. The background canvas was painted by the British artist Brian Clarke, who was also responsible for designing stage backdrops for the world tour.

12" single featuring three remixes of the track "Ou est le Soleil?"

In an interview with the Washington Post in July 2016, Paul McCartney revealed that the non-inclusion of any "Flowers" tracks on his recent "Pure McCartney" compilation was due to the Archive edition being on the horizon.

Paul was then asked by the interviewer, "Will it be released in its entirety? There are all those songs you wrote and recorded with Elvis Costello, many of them not officially released," to which Paul responded: "That’s one of the real exciting things. Those demos. We’re releasing them as part of this package. I’m not sure I’m supposed to be telling you this. . . . It’s great that you’re a fan of "Flowers in the Dirt". Cause you’ve got a real nice release coming out. We showed it all to Elvis, and he was just tickled pink."

Unconfirmed from the industry is that the set includes 21 demos, 61 tracks all in all (music and video), plus paper material in the form of at least one 112 page book and several other booklets etc.

Original album track listing:

1. My Brave Face
2. Rough Ride
3. You Want Her Too
4. Distractions
5. We Got Married
6. Put It There
7. Figure Of Eight
8. This One
9. Don't Be Careless Love
10. That Day Is Done
11. How Many People
12. Motor Of Love
13. Ou Est Le Soleil (bonus track on cassette and CD editions)

Earlier re-releases

World Tour Pack

- A limited-edition "World Tour Pack" of "Flowers in the Dirt", sold in a facsimile trunk, was issued in Great Britain and Europe in October 1989, and America (with British catalogue numbers) in January 1990. The set included a bonus single of "Party Party" (mixed by Bruce Forest and released on a one-sided 7" single in vinyl editions of the "World Tour Pack" and a 3" CD-single in compact disc editions of the "World Tour Pack").

Japan 2CD edition (1990)

- In March 1990, another limited edition of the album that featured a bonus disc was released exclusively in Japan and re-entered the country's chart.

I have been following Paul's solo releases from 1972 onwards (I was ten then), and the release of "Flowers In The Dirt" in 1989 was a major highlight. I remember watching the "Put It There" Special on UK TV in June 1989 - I actually watched it before I could afford buying the album on CD. It was fantastic and I couldn't believe Paul was getting back on the road... well, it seems he's been on it ever since (not quite, I know). The deluxe release will hopefully include a few surprises - there has been so much stuff out legally and not quite so legally.

I recall Smash Hits magazine in the UK reviewing the 'My Brave Face' single in 1989.Full of praise for the song (Smash Hits used to refer to Paul affectionately as 'Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft!'), but I remember the Smash Hits journalist saying that the copy they'd been given of the single had something called 'Queen Of The Reich' by a band named Queensryche on the B-Side instead of 'Flying To My Home'. A mis-pressing, I presume, but I wonder how Beatles/McCartney fans have that one?

Band On The Run's two tracks are official, as are the two download-only cuts from Ram. (Interestingly, the Ram cuts are buyable on iTunes!) Paul also released four download-only cuts with Ocean's Kingdom in 2011, three free singles on his website for Venus And Mars, and one each for Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace.

Hi BrianI have only just found those downloadable extras from Venus and Mars, Tug of War and Pipes of Peace ones you mention on Macca's website, but how can the older ones be accessed? I am intrigued by the downloadable extras from Ocean's Kingdom because I bought the album when it came out and I had no idea there were extras. They are not on his website now!

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